i am looking at nohats au 👀 please share more
So! NoHats! I'm going to grab you and use this to ramble. A Lot.
The NoHats AU is @samhainian's it's just that I'm the strange little freak who takes the words said unto me and executes on them. But I can still do a little explainer on what our overall thoughts and vibes are. (And, that we are in fact propping up a little box with some cheese under it here. 🪤 Please (PLEASE) feel free to pick up what we're putting down.)
We're far from the only ones exploring a "what if siffrin fucking died" AU, though the main difference with NoHats is the placement of the death in the timeline. Instead of being 'Mal Du Pays Wins' or 'Act 6 encounter goes horribly wrong', the death is… Just after the (literal) falling action.
(This placement is because Sam is a comic book fan who thus has become used to characters being ripped away at the cruelest times by shitty writers. THANK FUCKING GOD adrienne is not that and isat is delightful yippieee, but, back on topic.)
Giving the party the full understanding of What Happened that you get by putting the death after black hole siffrin, but before the A6 encounter leaves an interesting gap to be filled.
See, making Siffrin's death very much not Loop's fault means that… this once again reads (when not read as simply a tragedy...) as the universe doing what it sees fit to fulfull Loop's wish… Thus making Siffrin's death Loop's fault again, but only in their eyes. And only in a way they could express if they were honest about who they were…
And this is where having had excuse to waffle about my general Postcanon Loop thoughts the other day comes in handy, because Sam and I have that as our canon-compliant reading to begin with, NoHats plays off of a lot of the same readings of Loop's character. Namely: Uh Oh Somebody's Lying By Fucking Omission Again. (BECAUSE TO BE FAIR THIS TIME… HOW THE FUCK WOULD YOU HANDLE THAT?)
Now, neither Sam nor I are fanfic writers, so this has been a little bit trapped in our heads and DMs (and my unfinished art but,)
But our thoughts on how NoHats like… Goes.
Siffrin's death is peaceful, but that does not mean the aftermath of it is. I can't imagine the party takes it well, especially after understanding the circumstances of the Loops. (And, of note, in A5 where nobody had the discussion on what to do with each other's bodies should something happen…) But I'd imagine it traumabonds them somewhat (understatement of the century) and now knowing how the rest of the party feels, they resolve to travel together for the forseeable future.
The party track down Loop to deliver the terrible news, since they were clearly Siffrin's friend too, and invite Loop along to travel at least long enough to (let them grieve) get the burial over with. Loop, here, can be helpful in knowing what Siffrin would've wanted where the party would be at a loss. Loop, I think, takes a bit of a lead on the funerary aspects of it all, because, um. (Performing rites on your own body, huh?)
Then, as things are after a death, life just… Kind of has to continue on as normal. The party travel, pick up Nille, and get to know Loop as this mysterious new person. Maybe in this situation they might stay in Bambouche for a while to give Bonnie more stability since. They are probably taking it the worst. It would've come out of absolutely nowhere for everyone in the party obviously but god, for a kid? For A Kid?
It should be stated NoHats is not intended to be grimdark, just y'know. An exploration of grief. This is also why it's got a bit of a lopsided focus on Bonnie vs the rest of the party because hhrrhghghhghghhhghhghhh <- incoherent
Now, a crossroads.
How does the party discover Loop to be Siffrin? How long does it take. How much have the party embraced them as part of the family (especially with something as intense to bond over as this)?
There's the Odile option. Have her put it together and have to bring it up somehow.
This could also be done by Isabeau, perhaps. He's smart. (which. God. If anything's the real Isabeau Torment Nexus it's this)
Then there's the other option batted around by Sam and I.
The: The Universe Dislikes Duplicates option.
The items in the house that fzzt away when inspected. The Universe doesn't like there to be two of something, at least not when they're acknowledged. But one of something is just fine…?
Which is to say. I'm not a personal proponent of 'Loop getting their body back'. EXCEPT …… except this one time.
There's only one Siffrin now, so they don't need to be obfuscated to exist.
Consider, if you will. Loop swallowing their guilt for long enough to be comfortable. Falling back into old habits. Without another Siffrin around to compete for the niche of, they actually begin to act like Siffrin again. Not intentionally, it's just… The party is as welcoming as they've always been. And the party swears they keep catching glimpses of a face under all the light.
Then, one day, while still not fully human again, the resemblence becomes undeniable. Loop having not even noticed until everyone looks at them like they've seen a ghost.
Has it been months? How long have they kept up this lie? Is it even a lie, to them? They're Loop. But they were, once, Siffrin.
Even after explaining it, does that make it better or worse?
Bonnie cuts through the betrayed, struck-nerve reactions with a sobering "I missed you."
… Anyway !
Yeah so that's the vibe for NoHats. As for LoopLoops?
That's more nebulous. I think it can go anywhere really in the NoHats timeline.
I err personally toward the "Loop continuously replays the last 10 minutes before Siffrin's death almost immediately after they find out and have to parkour their ass up the House in the most distressing situation possible to try and get them to hold on, just please hold on." (Remember! Siffrin can remember the contents of Loop's loop backs in the A6 fight!)
But there is the possibility that this happens months, or worse years down the road. One last Loop back. Throw it all away for the chance to just get that one thing you didn't know you even wanted but now know you NEED.
Misc:
Okay miscellaneous time.
This is where I admit that I have a bunch of unfinished NoHats art that I haven't gotten around to yet because I feel like a right tool being so obviously Loop-Centric with my fancontent (I AM . . I REALISE I AM NOT DOING MUCH TO BEAT THE ALLEGATIONS.) So like if people want to see that please say because euaghghghhfh <- the nervous.
this is like the most fucked up place to do isaloop fr. anyway.
one of Sam's mid-game observations that I'm just going to share for no particular reason is that Bonnie's hair shares a bunch of shapes with Siffrin's. The flick up at the top, the 3 pronged shape of the fringe… just something to think about.
Without 2 Siffrins around to compare each other to it'd likely be a lot harder to notice Loop's similarities. Doesn't mean that those similarities don't sting more in this context though.
If you do NoHats without LoopLoops. The concept of this all fading into memory years down the line while they just have slightly-glowy but otherwise regular Siffrin hanging out is fucked up to think about. Just like real grief. Augh
6. a peek into the original dms as a treat from us
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More Jaket mod sillyness, if you don't know about the mod go look at my first post under the tag Jaket mod to see a bit more about it, I'll explain the quirks as they come up in art.
Explanation of what's going on here under the read more
So we somehow accidentally made a tragic madoka magica timeline fuckery with 2 robots. Because it turns out one of the quirks of the version of the mod we were using is that uh, if I die (player 1) every enemy in the room instantly ceases to exist, I get sent back to checkpoint and have to walk back to try again, but my friend Pico? Noooooooo, they stay in the room and see all the enemies get thanos snapped, and wait for me to come back, that's how It goes
Except for bosses, with bosses when I die I get sent back like normal, and when I come back a new boss spawns and the fight starts over (normal) BUT from Pico's pov there are now 2 versions of the boss, the one I'm fighting which targets me as played 1, and the one that just killed previous me, and THAT boss has no idea I exist anymore and only targets pico, I cannot see these bosses only pico can, but they can damage her and she can damage them like normal.
So with Gabriel this meant while I was fighting one Gabe and failing, she was fighting like 6 Gabriel's and somehow winning, so good at the game.
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i was raised on little light [WIP, game of thrones au]
David thought he knew cold.
The bards herald the ten-year summer Westeros has been relishing, singing of lush flowers and festivals, seas of grass and skies clear enough to see the heavens, glowing knights and nymphish, petaled maidens; all the joys that bloom from the first pleasant bud of heat. But David hails from Deepwood, and even ten years of summer can’t melt away the ice embedded in the bones of the North.
There were no flowers in the North, save for the hardy shrubs and spiked thistles that pierced their way through the ice-crusted mud. The grass is not a lush sea of green waving rhythmically in the cool breeze; the fields are stubby and frigid, the grass too short and prickling for even the notion of relaxation, and the wild grasses beyond only grow sharper with every inch. That said, for all the cold’s bitterness, it can be unifying. Heat was the people’s power, after all, the warmth at the heart of a crowd; being alone in a storm was a far surer fate than having a warm body to crawl in next to. Every day, the people of Deepwood Motte would stand shoulder to shoulder, stacking bricks into a night-house for a newly wedded couple, pulling tough root vegetables from frozen earth, tanning hides upon a post, all for the hope that when they go to sleep, it will be in houses that keep out the cold, with a belly full of stew, swaddled in a blanket of warm wolf-skin – and that when they wake, they will stack more bricks, pull more crops, tan more hides, all to leave for the younger ones still sleeping in their cots.
The Wall, however, is a different beast. It stands alone, one long scar on a field of pale flesh, braced against the edge of the world in stone fury. There are no trees this far north, no shrub nor thistle brave enough to escape the bone-deep snow. There are no crops strong enough to withstand the earth’s sharp teeth.
The Wall is a monster. There should be no need for the myths of what lies beyond it, the bedtime stories of grumpkins and snarks spiriting children from their beds – one glance at the Wall would turn that fear into something indescribable. In one structure lies more ice than all in Westeros have ever experienced in their lifetimes combined, growing with steadily forward with every flake. t’s impossible to tell when looking up, the incline being so subtle when compared to the sheer breadth of it, but when looking down? The ground below disappears as the ice spans outwards, ten castles wide at the base, leaving any who chance a glance below with the sickening reminder that you stand upon a spire built by the will of the Gods to separate you from the world beyond them. Gods who see vertigo as a question that they are all too willing to answer.
Most importantly, the Wall is cold. It is cold in a way that redefines all sensation. It is cold that seeps through your skin, sets in your muscles and lays its roots all the way down to the marrow, and there is no amount of warmth that may thaw it. It is cold that lies beyond pain, beyond numbness, but to the place beyond both, where your body becomes a foreign shell, hardened and toughened into something designed only to keep moving, to keep breathing, to survive at all costs. It is cold without the company, shivering without another body to press that fleeting warmth into – and somehow, that’s the thing that sticks. Not the snow freezing his lashes or the ice crusting along his skin, but the gnawing emptiness in the pit of his stomach. The hunger that can’t be sated. The want – no, the need, the desperate, carnal need-
“Jacobs.”
David bites down on the inside of his cloak, and forces himself to breath like a man.
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